Britain asked the UN Security Council on Wednesday to support a call for the immediate release of 15 sailors and marines captured by Iran, council diplomats said.

South Africa's UN Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, said Britain had circulated a press statement to the 14 other council members which would be discussed on Thursday.

The statement says the 15 sailors and marines were operating in Iraqi waters, under a mandate from the Security Council and at the request of Iraq, and supports calls for their immediate release, according to council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the text was not released.

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The Britons were taken captive Friday after completing a search of a civilian ship near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which forms the border between Iran and Iraq.

Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday said his government agreed to allow British officials to meet with the 15 sailors and marines. But Manouchehr Mottaki told The Associated Press on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia that Britain must admit that its sailors entered Iranian waters for the standoff to be resolved. He did not specify when the visit could occur.

Mottaki said that if the crew's alleged entry into Iranian waters was a mistake this can be solved. But they have to show that it was a mistake, that will help us to end this issue, he said.

The Iranian foreign minister said also while attending the summit that a female servicewoman, captured with the other 14 men, would be released "today or tomorrow."

Earlier on Wednesday, Iranian television broadcast footage of 15 British sailors and marines Iran seized last week, including an interview with the only female soldier in the group.

The British government condemned the broadcast, saying it was "completely unacceptable" for pictures of British sailors captured by Iran last week to be shown on Iranian television and demanded immediate access to them.

"There is no doubt that our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters and were entitled to be there," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "We expect immediate consular access as a prelude to the release of the 15 personnel and the return of their equipment."

Iran had promised British officials in talks that it would not show the sailors on television as it did with a group captured in 2004 - a senior British foreign office diplomat said earlier Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with British government rules.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Wednesday that until the crisis is resolved, Britain will freeze all official bilateral relations with Iran, apart from contacts over the crew's release.

"We are now in a new phase of diplomatic activity. We need to focus all our bilateral efforts during this phase to resolution of this issue. We will therefore be imposing a freeze on all other official bilateral business with Iran until this situation is resolved," Beckett told parliament.

Also Wednesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was time to increase pressure on Iran to release the sailors.

"There was no justification whatever ... for their detention, it was completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal," Blair told the House of Commons shortly after the Ministry of Defense released satellite data which it said proved the crew was in Iraqi waters, and not Iranian territorial waters, as the Iranians had said after the seizure.

"We had hoped to see their immediate release; this has not happened. It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure in order to make sure the Iranian government understands its total isolation on this issue," Blair said.

The British prime minister said he believed the Navy crew acted sensibly in not putting up a fight after being confronted by six Iranian vessels.

"If they had engaged in military combat at that stage, there would have undoubtedly been severe loss of life. I think they took the right decision and did what was entirely sensible," Blair said.

He added that Britain was in contact with allies in NATO and the UN Security Council to build support for its position.

"We are now in contact with all our key allies and partners to explain this incontrovertible fact that the seizure of the 15 British personnel was utterly without foundation and to step up the pressure on the Iranian government to deliver their immediate release," Blair told parliament.

The Iranian Embassy in London issued a statement Wednesday saying the British and Iranian governments are capable of resolving the crisis through cooperation.

"We are confident that Iranian and British governments are capable of resolving this security case through their close contacts and cooperation," the statement said.